EU drugs agency starts evaluating results of BioNTech booster shots

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The European Medicine Agency (EMA) started on Monday to evaluate the result of booster doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

The EMA’s Committee for Human Medicine will assess the data on booster shots administered six months after the second dose for people older than 16 years, the EU agency said in a press statement.

The evaluation is based on the results of clinical trials involving 300 adults with healthy immune systems who received a third dose around six months after they were fully vaccinated.

The EU drugs agency expects the results to be published within a few weeks.

BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines were the first COVID-19 jabs authorized in the EU as the bloc financially contributed to the development of the vaccine under an advanced purchased agreement signed in 2020.

This year, BioNTech/Pfizer committed to delivering a total of 600 million vaccine doses to the bloc.

To provide booster jabs, the European Commission agreed in May with Pfizer/BioNTech to purchase another 1.8 billion doses for 2022 and 2023.

The jab uses an innovative mRNA technique based on a messenger molecule with instructions to produce a protein from the virus that causes COVID-19 to prepare the body to fight the disease.

Contrary to traditional vaccines, BioNTech/Pfizer does not contain the virus itself.